Give us vote or national plans could end in court, say TDs

A group of TDs met Eoghan Murphy, the housing minister, right. Leo Varadkar called the plan “a very good package”BRIAN LAWLESS/PA

The government’s new €115 billion capital plan will be “wide open to legal challenge”, the housing minister has been warned.

There were rowdy scenes in the Dáil yesterday as the government was accused of engaging in “skulduggery” by trying to avoid a vote on the National Development Plan and the National Planning Framework.

Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach, said it was “a case of political parties, for political reasons, opposing a plan they have not even seen yet”.

He said there was no requirement for the final document to be voted through by the Oireachtas, but opposition politicians said it was always the plan to hold a vote and that this was a requirement under a new law soon to be enacted. They have accused the…